


Sights Unseen: The Serpent's Lair

by aadarshinah



Series: Sights Unseen [12]
Category: Stargate - All Series, Stargate Atlantis, Stargate SG-1
Genre: Backstory, Episode: s02e01 The Serpent's Lair, F/M, Hiding, NASA
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-30
Updated: 2014-06-30
Packaged: 2018-02-06 21:24:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,524
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1872993
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aadarshinah/pseuds/aadarshinah
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Missing Moment's from SG1's "The Serpent's Lair"</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Doctor M. Rodney McKay

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first story in which we get the actual "backstory for The Ancient!John 'verse" going on. While this _is_ an SG-1 episode and will probably have a second, SG-1 focused part, this part is decidedly SGA focused, and although it doesn't involve AJ in any way, it _does_ contain my head!cannon for Rodney's background. 
> 
> Because it is my head!canon ([as developed with spaci1701 almost two years ago](http://aadarshinah.livejournal.com/146950.html?thread=594694#t594694)) that Rodney has worked for the Air Force since '92, but following the First Abydos Mission (which my [timeline](<a%20href=) places in mid-October, 1996) he was recruited by the NID to work on things. Like the [goa'uld busters.](http://stargate.wikia.com/wiki/Goa%27uld-buster)

**8 April, 1998 – Vandenberg AFB, Earth, Milky Way**

 

Rodney has known a great many idiots in his life. He’s fairly certain that Colonel Maybourne might be the greatest of these, but until now he’s tolerated the man’s idiocy and self-serving-ness because it’s dovetailed nicely with his own aims – _id est_ , funding for his own research into the Stargates – but this latest insanity just takes the cake.

“Are you crazy?” he says after the meeting breaks up. Colonel Maybourne has offered to ‘escort’ him to the hangar where the Naquadah-enhanced warheads he’s been working on on-and-off for the last eighteen months are being prepped for launch, “Do you have any idea what the chances of this actually working are?”

“You make this work, Doctor, and the funding for your research will triple.”

“This isn’t about funding,” he hisses as they pass an SF going the opposite direction. “You asked me to design a high-yield nuclear device that no country on Earth could detect. You said _nothing_ about making that weapon undetectable by _highly advanced alien life-forms in orbit_!”

Colonel Maybourne looks casts a quick look around before grabbing his upper arm and pulling him – _hard_ – into a narrow alley between two warehouses. “What did you think we were asking you to do, Doctor McKay, when we read you into the Stargate Program? Solve world hunger? Discover cold fusion?”

“Well that had been a hope-“ Rodney begins, unable to help himself, before stifling an embarrassingly high-pitched yelp as the Colonel shakes him one-handed.

“My employers fund your research so that you can build them weapons that might be of use against any alien force that might retaliate against us after the death of Ra, not invent a better baby bottle. You’ve had eighteen months to design a weapon that can do the job and now you’re telling me it’s not going to work.” 

Huffing, “No, these warheads will exactly do the job I designed them for: there’s not a radar on Earth that could pick these missiles up unless they know the exact tracking signal. But the goa’uld aren’t from Earth, Colonel. We don’t even know if they _use_ radar. And that’s not counting whether or not they have some kind of hull plating or energy shielding that that could mitigate the damage even a one thousand megaton detonation might cause.”

The Colonel releases him, disgusted. “You’ve known what we’re up against for eighteen months, Doctor McKay.”

“No, I’ve known what we _might_ be up against for eighteen months. I don’t know how those goa’uld ships work. I can make some guesses and build you a bomb twenty times more powerful than anything ever seen before on Earth, but unless you get me a part of those ships, or some schematics, or _something_ , I’m only guessing at answers here.

“The goa’uld flung those ships through space _faster than the speed of light_. Until yesterday, I didn’t even know that was possible. I don’t know _how_ they did it, but I _can_ tell you that they’d need some pretty strong shield capacity to manage it, and that these bombs of yours might not be enough to pierce it.”

“You better hope this works, Doctor, for your sake.”

Maybourne stalks out of the alley, leaving Rodney to find the rest of the way to the hanger by himself. Exhaling sharply, he lets his head fall back against the warehouse wall. Not for the first time, he wonders just how deep he’s got himself in agreeing to consult for the NID.


	2. Captain Samantha Carter, USAF

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More Missing Moments from SG-1's "The Serpent's Lair."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here we have the SG-1 side of things. 
> 
> The Space Shuttle _Endeavour_ wasn't launched anywhere near when this episode should take place, but the _Columbia_ was. I simply moved her [STS-90 crew](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-90) onto the new ship and bumped up it's launch by nine days. The people mentioned are real, but I only know as much about them as wikipedia tells.

**8 April, 1998 – Space Shuttle _Endeavour_ , Earth Orbit, Milky Way**

 

“I’ve been in space twice before this,” the mission commander tells them, shedding his gear after the harrowing six hour spacewalk to rescue all four of them from their crippled death gliders without exposing them to the vacuum of space, “but I’ve got to say this is a first for me.”

The Colonel gives him a tired smile. “Bit of a first for us too.”

“When the folks at Canaveral told me why they were bumping our mission up a week, well, you could’ve knocked me over with a feather. Are you two,” he holds out a newly de-gloved hand, forking his index and middle fingers at Teal’c and Bra’tac, “really aliens?”

Master Bra’tac doesn’t answer. Teal’c does incline his head, which seem to be enough for the mission commander. “Well I’ll be damned.” He trusts out his hand, and Teal’c been on Earth long enough to understand the concept of a handshake. “Colonel Richard Searfoss, United States Air Force and Commander of STS-90. Welcome to the Space Shuttle _Endeavour_.”

After they do the introductions, Colonel Searfoss gets down to business, clapping his hands together and smiling broadly. “Now, as much as you lot probably want to get back to Earth, we can’t just turn around. _Endeavou_ r’s a bit too big to escape notice when we land and the folks on Capitol Hill will give us all sorts of trouble if come home early, especially from the folks who don’t know about your program. And as happy as we are to have rescued you all, we do have a mission of our own to run.”

Sam nods, understanding. “We understand. I’m happy to help out anyway I can, though I’d like the opportunity to salvage as much of the gliders as possible, if it can be arranged.”

Searfoss gives her an accessing look. “Engineer?” he asks at last.

“Astrophysicist, actually, but I know my way around a circuit board.”

Colonel O’Neill, perched atop a storage contain on the other side of the narrow utility area, “Ah, c’mon Carter, don’t sell yourself short. She practically built the computers that run our base, and that’s saying something.”

Sam feels herself flush as Searfoss nods. “Talk to Commander Hire. She should have something for you.”

“Thank you sir.”

* * *

**24 April, 1998 – Space Shuttle _Endeavour_ , Earth Orbit, Milky Way**

 

 _Endeavour_ only has seating for seven, but even if the regular crew didn’t need all those for themselves, Bra’tac and what remains of SG-1 aren’t supposed to be here anyway. A space shuttle can’t just leave Earth with seven people and come back with eleven, not when it doesn’t dock with any known space station or spacecraft. So, to secure themselves for re-entry and hide their extra passengers from prying eyes, the crew has been readying storage units built into the utility level of the shuttle.

Teal’c and Bra’tac each get a small cupboard at the back of the cabin, as far from the airlock as possible. Should anyone unauthorized come stumbling aboard, they’ll have a difficult time finding aliens who are not supposed to exist before being discovered by security forces. It’s a tight fit for both, but neither complain.

“I’m afraid you’ll have to share,” Lieutenant Commander Kay Hire, the sole female on STS-90, tells them after the others are secured. Sam had anticipated a similar situation in the front of the utility for herself and Colonel O’Neill – storage units on opposite sides of the shuttle – but there’s only so much free space. As it is, the cupboard they’re assigned is scarcely larger than the others and it’s such a close fit that Sam ends up pressed closely against the Colonel – his left shoulder and thigh to her right – and secured in place with webbing taken from the dormitory area that hopefully no one will miss during the initial offloading of cargo, before the SGC can remove them from _Endeavour_ in dead of night. Commander Hire hangs a curtain in place before closing the locker – one final deterrent to prying eyes – and locking the door.

She’s not cold, but Sam can’t stop from trembling.

“Alright there, Carter?”

“Yes, Sir.”

“Cold?”

“No, Sir.”

“Claustrophobic?”

“No, Sir,” she says, just as tightly as before. But knowing he’ll keep asking if she doesn’t give him an answer, Sam goes on, “I just don’t like being locked in here. If something goes wrong-“

“Nothing’s going to go wrong.”

“ _If_ something goes wrong,” she reiterates, “I’d rather be out there, able to do something, than locked in here.”

“We’ll be fine, Carter. These things are safe as houses and we’ve got professionals driving. Sit back and enjoy the ride.”

“Yes, Sir,” she agrees without much feeling. She hates it, but there’s nothing she can do, so she just has to deal with it.

They sit like that for a while, silent in the dark, but before the re-entry checklist is even a third of the way done, the Colonel appears to come to a decision. Shifting a little, he says, “C’mere.”

“Sir?”

He tugs and shifts a little bit more and then she understands. A moment later his arm is around her, pulling her even closer, and Sam can hide her face in his shoulder without worrying she’ll be found lacking. It doesn’t make up for being locked in here, unable to _do_ anything if anything needs doing, letting everything ride on somebody else’s shoulders, but it goes a long way.

And if she feels him press a kiss to the top of her head after re-entry starts, well, she might just be imagining things.


End file.
